Very long optical fiber transmission paths, such as those employed in undersea or transcontinental terrestrial lightwave transmission systems, are subject to decreased performance due to a host of impairments that accumulate along the length of the optical fiber in the transmission path. The source of these impairments within a single data channel includes amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise generated in Erbium-Doped Fiber-Amplifiers (EDFAs), nonlinear effects caused by dependence of the single-mode fiber's index on the intensity of the light propagating through it, and chromatic dispersion which causes different optical frequencies to travel at different group velocities. In addition, for wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems, where several optical channels are on the same fiber, crosstalk between channels caused by the fiber's nonlinear index can be problematic.
Distortions of the received waveform are influenced by design of the transmission line, as well as the shape of the transmitted pulses. Known long-haul systems have been implemented using On-Off-Keying (OOK), wherein the transmitted pulse is turned on and off with the ones and zeros of a data bit stream. On-Off-Keying may be implemented in a variety of well-known formats, such as Return-to-Zero (RZ), Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) and Chirped-Return-to-Zero (CRZ) formats. Generally, in a RZ format the transmitted optical pulses do not occupy the entire bit period and return to zero between adjacent bits, whereas in a NRZ format the optical pulses have a constant value characteristic when consecutive binary ones are sent. In a chirped format, such as CRZ, a bit synchronous sinusoidal phase modulation is imparted to the transmitted pulses.
Phase Shift Keying (PSK) is another modulation method known to those of ordinary skill in the art. In PSK modulation ones and zeros are identified by phase differences or transitions in the optical carrier. PSK may be implemented by turning the transmitter on with a first phase to indicate a one and then with a second phase to indicate a zero. In a differential phase-shift-keying (DPSK) format, the optical intensity of the signal may be held constant, while ones and zeros are indicated by differential phase transitions. DPSK modulation formats include RZ-DPSK, wherein a return-to-zero amplitude modulation is imparted to a DPSK signal, and CRZ-DPSK.
It has been recognized that the RZ-DPSK modulation format has particular advantages over other formats in WDM long-haul optical systems. For example, compared to OOK, RZ-DPSK modulation provides a significant reduction in the required optical signal-to-noise (OSNR) for a particular bit error rate (BER). As such, systems for imparting a RZ-DPSK modulation to WDM optical signals have been developed.
Receiver configurations for demodulating DPSK modulated optical signals are known. Known receiver configuration have included optical and electrical components such as an optical amplifier, e.g. a doped optical fiber amplifier, to amplify the received optical signal, a tunable band pass filter for removing out of band noise from the amplified optical signal, a tunable optical interferometer, such as a Mach-Zehnder type interferometer, and a dual balanced detector for converting the optical outputs of the interferometer into an electrical signal representative of the modulated data. Stable and accurate setting of the operating points for the receiver components, e.g. filter pass band wavelength, interferometer path length, receiver optical power level etc. is necessary to achieve optimal system BER. However, factors including manufacturing tolerances, temperature and aging can cause the component operating points to vary, thereby negatively affecting receiver performance. To actively control the receiver components operating points standard dithering control loops have been implemented. Known control loop configurations have, however, relied on unspecified parameters that can vary from receiver to receiver and/or require additional complex and expensive hardware in the data path causing decreased receiver performance.
For example one known method of controlling receiver optical power includes stabilizing the output power of an optical amplifier, which inherently includes the sum of a signal and wideband ASE noise. Another known method requires an extra optical splitter and photodiode at the optical filter output. A known method for controlling a DPSK interferometer includes providing feedback from the DC bias current of a subsequent photodiode(s). However, the baseband feedback from a DC bias current of a photodiodes depends on an “uncontrolled” data mark-to-space ratio and may be zero in an ideal case when the mark-to-space ratio is 1:1. Another known method of controlling a DPSK interferometer requires extra components (RF detectors) in data path.
In addition to controlling receiver component operating points, it is advantageous to control optical transients in the signal at the input of the receiver. As is known, optical transients in optically pre-amplified receivers can potentially destroy receiver components. During incoming signal loss (ISL) conditions, a receiver pre-amplifier, e.g. an EDFA, working in constant output power mode may set its gain to its maximum value. The ISL may be determined by detecting a signal level below a predetermined threshold. The threshold may be set below the nominal input operating range of the amplifier. When ISL is detected, the amplifier may be disabled until the input signal level increases above the threshold.
Modern systems incorporating forward error correction (FEC) may operate at input signal power levels below the amplifier nominal input operating range. The known approach for protecting against optical transients can, therefore, disable the input amplifier at times when the input signal is below the nominal input operating range, but high enough for reliable signal detection. This results in inefficient system operation.
In addition, known receiver configurations incorporate a clock recovery unit for extracting the data clock from an incoming data stream. Usually, the clock recovery unit is a narrow-band device with a tracking bandwidth of few MHz. This may result in a receiver configuration that is intolerant to high frequency jitter in the received signal.
There is therefore a need for a receiver configuration for efficiently and reliably demodulating a DPSK modulated optical signal.